International Airlines Group (IAG), the owner of British Airways, announced Friday that its 2014 operating profit was 1.39 billion euros (about 1.56 billion U.S. dollars), nearly double that of the prior year's 770 million euros.

The group's revenue for the year was up by 8.0 percent to 20.17 billion euros, said IAG. Its operating profit in the fourth quarter of 2014 was more than double that of a year earlier, data showed.